Agenda item

Officers presented the Internal Audit progress report for Q3 of 2023-24.

Since the previous Audit Committee, nine reports had been issued in final. At the time of writing the report, five had been issued in draft, one of which had since been finalised. This related to private sector housing, which was reasonable assurance and would be included in the report for the next Audit Committee.

Lots of remaining audits were getting to the draft report stage and those marked as field work were at the end of the field work stage.

More reports had been issued in final at this stage in the year, compared to at the end of April in the last financial year. Although there was some work outstanding, officers had no concerns and this represented a good position for internal audit work.

Of the nine reports issued in final, one was substantial, two were reasonable, two were advisory and four were limited assurance reports.

Common themes identified in the limited assurance reports related to:

For ‘Facilities Management’ and ‘Climate Action’ reports, this related to governance arrangements and the strategic direction of the governance arrangements.

For ‘Homeless Housing Applications’ and ‘Goshawk Gardens & Chapel Lane’ reports, this related to the effectiveness of controls in practice.

Changes to the Internal Audit plan were also highlighted, with the removal of the budget-setting audit due to prioritisation of zero-based budgeting (ZBB) processes. An audit of pool cars had been added to the plan in response to service requests. This had been completed and would be finalised by the next Audit Committee.

Regarding follow-up, three reports were now closed since the last Audit Committee meeting, but several recommendations remained outstanding. Officers explained that some delays in addressing recommendations were due to new systems implementation and personnel changes.

Members asked for more details about the status of ‘field work’. Officers clarified that this referred to testing, obtaining evidence and coming up with findings, working with services to collate evidence and identifying what to report. Report drafting referred to when field work had finished, writing up the reports, going through an internal review stage before being issued. Reports marked as draft in amber meant that a draft report had been sent to the service for their management response.

Members asked about the key performance indicators (KPIs), and specifically KPI 8 (HIGH and MEDIUM risk IA Management Actions completed within the agreed timescale). Officers noted that not all of the KPIs were things for Internal Audit to deal with. KPI 8 referred to management responding to completing management actions. The KPIs were making sure that there was evidence to the Committee that progress was being made.

It was noted that the follow-up process started at the beginning of the year. Initially there were a lot of quick follow-ups and a lot of these were reported to the previous Audit Committee. Those remaining were likely older ones whereby officers many have changed, or it was taking time to embed new systems.

The Chair expressed concerns about the findings around Facilities Management, and asked if officers were confident in these being taken forward. Officers noted that there was a new Corporate Director of Place and one of their major priorities was around Asset Management, which included Facilities Management.

The Chair noted interest in the request for an audit of pool cars but was happy to wait until the next Audit Committee for a further update.

Officers provided an update on staffing changes within the Internal Audit team. The Internal Audit Manager and an Internal Auditor were due to leave by the end of the year. Officers assured the Committee that there was a plan in place for this.

The Chair commended the inclusion of a table outlining the reviews, and also commended the progress made by the Internal Audit team.

The Chair asked about the follow-ups on the Care Leavers’ Allowance and Pupil Premium. Officers noted that, on Pupil Premium, this relied on contacting schools which meant there was an extra step involved. The Care Leavers’ Allowance had one high level recommendation and Members asked to be kept updated if there were any issues.

Members asked if officers were involved in the zero-based budgeting exercise, and how this may affect the work officers were doing. Officers noted that they were involved, in terms of talking about future developments for the service. Potential impacts could come from any big transformation projects or big changes to the service, although this was no different to any other transformational work or changes going on across the Council.

RESOLVED: That the Audit Committee noted the IA progress since the last Committee meeting